Lullaby
by Shyanna
Summary: Desert songs and shadowed nights give the Kazekage the briefest glimpse to happiness. GaaNaru // YAOI // Holiday Fic Fluff!


**_Lullaby_**

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Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I claim to own, Naruto or any related characters, places, plots, etc. No money is being made from this story, just a bit of fluff!

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The water was calm, drifting serenely past his toes as it ran its course downstream. Tiny ripples propelled outwards from his skin as the river flowed onwards, and he stared down into the shallow bank side in fascination. Pebbles long since polished smooth by such a gentle touch captured his imagination, and lulled his thoughts into peaceful bliss. 

Today was special. Today he had something to give as a gift, today he had someone to give it to, and today, he knew, someone would accept it.

It was not the first time he'd try to do something like this, contrary to the common misconception, Gaara really wasn't a cold-hearted bastard. Well, maybe a little, but it wasn't for lack of trying that he was perceived in such a way.

He'd tried a few times, more often in the years before, but they had always been cold heartedly rejected. Wouldn't that hateful turn-away make them the cold hearted bastards? It didn't seem to be that way.

So here he sat today, bordering on seventeen years old, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, and a small wrapped gift at his side as he dipped his feet into a lazily meandering stream on the outskirts of Konoha.

It wasn't a spectacular gift. It wasn't fancy, it wasn't expensive, in fact, were he to give it to anyone else but the one it was meant for, he was quite sure it would be utterly useless and invaluable.

But Naruto never treated anything he received with such pitiful care. He cherished what he was given by those he loved, because it meant just that. It meant that he was loved, and Naruto knew just as much as Gaara did how much that simple fact that others took so wretchedly for granted, meant.

It meant they wouldn't fall asleep at night, embraced by death herself in the wee hours of the morning, and get tossed unceremoniously into an unmarked grave when their corpse stunk so badly it finally drew attention. It meant he could walk down the road and meet people in the eye, because he was just as happy to be alive as they were.

It meant his life held meaning, and it meant the long hours at work were worth a damn because he had someone to come home to at the end of the day, he had a reason to cherish the time spent with them and appreciate the time spent away.

Naruto would treasure what Gaara gave him, because Naruto knew what it was like to feel abandoned and alone, but more importantly, Naruto knew what it meant to belong and feel surrounded.

What he wasn't so sure of was that if Naruto knew exactly who it was that loved him. Oh sure, he knew Sakura Haruno loved him. The pink haired ninja was the loudest woman, save her mentor, on the face of the earth. One would have to border, if not fall squarely into the categories of deaf, dumb, and stupid to over look her, and quite cold hearted to not take her constant hugs and cheek-kisses, and nuzzling embraces as anything but pure, whole-hearted love.

But Sakura loved Sasuke more then anything, so Naruto got her friendship. He also knew Kakashi would give his life to protect the blond haired bombshell, that was also true love, but Kakashi was like Iruka, and they loved their little buddy with all their hearts like a family would.

Sasuke loved Naruto too, in his own strange, twisted way. He punched him in the face, busted his lip, broke his nose, blacked his eye, and then picked him up off the dirty path and treated him to ramen with a guilty pleasure in his eye, which was also black, because Naruto would kick his rear just as hard.

But their love was platonic, best friends 'till the day they died, nothing more. Hinata loved Naruto too, and though she mistook it for a heart stopping love in their early years, she'd grown since then. Both of the Hyuuga children, Neji and Hinata alike, understood his unique role in life, and they loved him all the more for destroying any barrier in his path from the day his tiny little body swallowed the Kyuubi whole.

Hinata loved Naruto like a big brother, and Neji smiled at him like an insufferable Hyuuga too proud to admit he also loved the village idiot like family. Which he was, but Neji would be Neji, and that constituted a silent understanding between them.

The list went on and on, Naruto was loved very much. By everyone important, but he was never loved in that certain _spot._ That was the spot Gaara was hoping to fulfill today, though if the butterflies in his stomach were any warning sign, it might be a bit of a challenge.

He withdrew his toes from the river slowly, smiling down at the rushing waters with a gleam in his eye. Slipping his sandals onto his feet, he collected the thin package secured by ribbon, and headed into the open gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

He cleared his throat as he glanced around, glancing heavenwards as the approaching sunset sprinkled the town in loving hues, magic still shimmering imaginary in the air from the day's activities.

Valentines day, Gaara decided, was absolutely wonderful, when you were in love.

He cleared his throat again, rasping out a few words in practice once more as he set out, hoping Naruto would be at his home.

He hunkered down atop the roof, gazing down at the wavy shingles of the house he was perched upon. His green eyes were boring into the mass as if he could see through it, the chakra signature of his one and only blazing high and mighty through his senses.

He set the package down beside him, and cleared his throat in practice. He couldn't do this correctly if he sounded as if he hadn't spoken for half his life, which…well, he hadn't, but that was not the issue at hand.

Instead his knees curled up to meet his chest, and his hands came together around them as he opened his mouth and rehearsed a lullaby he'd listened to on a nightly basis. Never sung to him in a mother's gentle voice, never whispered from a father's soothing tone, somehow, it had lived in his memory. He would always remember them; they were burned into his memory.

He'd always wanted the chance to recite them, and that opportunity was staring him in the face. All he had to do now was open his mouth, and let the words flow from his lips as he stared out into the setting sun's vivid picture. He stared into the sunset with a smile on his lips, energy coursing through his veins as he took heed of the significance of what he was staring at.

The sun was swiftly falling from the sky, forever in the chase of his love. To his right, she was already high in the darkening sky, frantically hunting for her adored. So close…they were always so close, but nights like these made his heart heavy with remorse. They were so close, but just out of reach.

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_Someday you'll find someone like the moon_

_Someday you'll fly too, like the sun that seeks his moon_

_Someday you'll see, it's a never-ending race, to find your moon_

_Someday you'll feel the ache of finding your very own moon_

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_Someday you'll feel the heat of the sun_

_Someday you'll soar, like she does when she glimpses her sun_

_Someday you'll cry because you know you've found your sun_

_Someday you'll feel the sting when you watch the sinking sun_

_Someday you'll understand, the ever-chasing game between_

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_Someday you'll know what it's like to feel the burning, the sting_

_Someday you'll realize that after everything you've sown_

_Someday you'll see, that's when you realize you've always known_

_Side-by-Side_

_Someday you'll eclipse the sky_

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He coughed gently to clear the raw stinging in his throat that had welled up from somewhere, and gently unfurled his knees from his chest. The small package at his side whistled softly as the winds tousled it's ribbon playfully, sharing in the Kazekage's brief moment of heartache at the tale, at the bait, at the destined heartache. 

He drew in a shaky breath, summoning all of the courage he possessed, and promptly choked on it.

"If I knew you were going to sit on my roof and sing, I'd have laid a blanket out for you. Can't be all that comfortable sitting on shingles."

His blood turned to ice in his veins, and a pale fist closed roughly around the package in his hand, just shy of destroying it completely. The breeze played with his hair, sending threads of crimson in all directions as he mentally cursed himself for losing his focus in that brief relapse into childhood.

"What's it about?"

Gaara's knees drew back up to his chest as he leaned forward, sending the gift off the rooftop with a tiny shove. He watched it plummet earth bound, and felt his heart fall with it.

"It's a story they tell their children in the desert, about the sun and the moon.

They were once lovers, soul mates for all eternity. When they planets began to form, the sun, curious, glanced away from his love to inspect their company, and she was snatched from his arms by the jealous' earth's gravity.

They chase each other, day and night, when he sleeps she hunts, when she runs into the shadows to cry her tears, he searches. They will continue to chase one another forever, his passion blinds her and her pain shrouds his vision.

But, every now and then, they get close enough to feel the others presence. It's what keeps them chasing after one another, when they align so perfectly, only just missing the other, their feelings for one another meld into one, and the strength of their bond veils the earth in darkness."

He stayed silent for a moment, trying to quell the upheaval of emotions in his belly.

"That's a really sad love story. Why would you tell your children about things that will make them happy, and then turn right back around and tell them it won't last?"

Gaara stared out at the sinking sun, silence reigning as the wind picked up a few more notches. He stood, wiping miniscule particles of sand and dirt from his clothing.

"They are having some sort of Valentines Day party, Sakura-san asked me to come. Are you going?"

He heard the rustle of clothing as Naruto shrugged.

Without another word, Gaara slipped from the rooftop and walked away into the shadowed streets. Naruto watched him go, vaguely watching the gray clone of the Kazekage elongate as he drew away from the street lamp's gentle pool of light, and step into the next one.

He jumped from the roof, staring for a brief moment at the forgotten ribbon ensnared gift Gaara had thrown away. It lay innocently on the dust-covered path, and he picked it up with a strange subdued element to his motion. Tan fingers curled beneath the velvet strip, snapping it in half. He opened the envelope, and withdrew a damaged picture.

In the last shred of light the sun gave away as it dipped beneath the land and darkness settled around him, Naruto caught a flash of what someone, most likely the Kazekage himself, had captured.

The phase had been a few days ago, and like the good shinobi they were, they had cursed it. It threw them into perpetual darkness for a few hours, unsettling them, and leaving those with something to lose in a strange, melancholy atmosphere. It was as if the world itself was taunting them, showing them no matter what level of power they achieved, they simply could not combat the most basic element.

Astral bodies were unstoppable, they came and when as they pleased, consequences unheeded. The shadow melted their world into a few hours of tension, ever vigilant; they guarded their borders with extra ferocity. In the few hours in which daylight succumbed at the wrong time to night, they waited for the apocalypse.

It never came. Silly notions of fear and danger drowned as the sun reemerged from behind the moon, and doused the world in its light once more. The terror passed as reality reinstated itself, but, and the thought fell into his mind with a twisted smile on his face, Gaara had managed to capture something beautiful in that surreal vision of darkness.

Just before the sun vanished completely, for a split second, they'd set each other alight. It blazed in powerful glory, licks of yellow flaring on the outline of the shadowed moon as they moved into position. For that single moment, the edge in which they touched turned crimson. Blood red.

While the sun kissed the approaching force of night, the moon blazed a vivid scarlet in response.

He slipped the picture back into the envelope, and set it into the pocket of his jacket. A determined look in his eye, Naruto stepped forward, and followed the quiet trail of the Kazekage.

He walked past the bars, smiling slightly at the loud and rambunctious hoots of shinobi and villagers alike, celebrating the more passionate side of the day's celebrations amongst other adults. The children set the magic in action with their shy blushes and stolen glances, but when the sun fell, the adults made the magic pulse.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing, but it needed to be done. He found them in one of the training fields outside the skirts of Konoha, a merry band of battle-hard shinobi fraternizing and laughing at the rhythms of once-a-year attunement with one another. He could have picked him out of the crowd on the darkest night of the year, but the moon bathed him in a glorious ray of borrowed light tonight.

He was sitting at a picnic table, quietly conversing with Sakura. Naruto slid through the throng of familiar and well-loved faces, and stopped directly in front of him. Gaara's green eyes slid upwards, gazing steadily into Naruto's.

Sakura glanced his way momentarily, scooting away with a hastily made up excuse, and darted away with a fleeting gentle smile on her lips over her shoulder.

Naruto took her place beside the Kazekage, and he gazed out at his fellow ninja for long moments. "I guess I said that wrong."

Gaara's eyes flickered in his direction, but otherwise he too watched the Konoha shinobi cuddle up to his escorting Sand.

"I don't think a child would understand the depth of that." Naruto continued.

Neither of them spoke for a while, content to watch the party continue on. Someone took it upon himself or herself to belt out a lovely tune, and before long the voices of their comrades joined in. The melody of tens upon tens of ninja, voices rough and unhinged from their lives of ever-present danger shook them soundly, though true to their occupation, neither showed it.

"I don't think a child would understand it's better to have something so wonderful for a little while, then to have never had it at all."

Gaara cocked his head slightly, turning his powerful eyes on the azure that met him head-on. The night cast its touch on Naruto, plunging his already darkened skin into a bronze sheen that contrasted powerfully with his bright eyes. In the absence of his usual blinding smile, Gaara felt his knees quake vaguely at the dominant blue that glittered in the darkness.

Naruto was holding him with his eyes alone. It was a new experience, not unpleasant in the least, but certainly something he'd never seen before. It was almost subconsciously that he leaned forward a fraction of an inch, and Gaara could not quite conjure up the body that closed the distance. Whether he leaned in all the way, or Naruto overtook the space between them before he could recognize he'd moved, somehow or another, they found themselves staring into blackness as their eyes slid shut simultaneously.

Ever so gently their lips brushed, and Gaara's knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the seat he was perched upon.

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A/N: Sorry! This was supposed to be up for V-Day but I got a little side-tracked. 

The story of the Sun and the Moon used in this are an actual tale, though I'm not sure of it's true origin. While the version I've put here is slightly skewed because their meeting is more of days you see the moon even when the sun is up, I thought an eclipse would be more appealing to the characters. Anyhow, if your interested in the origin the only thing I can say is that the story has been told through the Mexican culture at the very least, as I said I'm not really sure if it's folklore specific to that nation or if it's a shared international mythology.

The lullaby is entirely made up, please forgive my awful poetry skills hehe, I tried. x.x


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